Self-loathing homophobe…helped commit election fundraising violations

Less than one week after this blog started, I reported on the danger Kirk Fordham was to the gay community. Fordham, who went on to become a central figure in Foley-gate (going so far as to negotiate with ABC news to control the Foley story), served as the finance director of homophobic Sen. Mel Martinez’s (R-FL) 2004 campaign.

Martinez, you may recall, ran ads on Florida radio that said allowing gay people to marry was similar to living under Castro’s totalitarian rule. Is it any wonder he had to steal his way into the Senate…at least he is consistent with his party’s M.O.

To me it seems that Fordham probably had his hand in all the misreporting. If he claims he didn’t then he’s a man not in control of the very things he was hired for. Sounds like a lose/lose to me for him.

The Audit Division also found that Martinez for Senate accepted $313,325 in excessive contributions. Virtually all of those illegal funds were spent by Martinez for Senate in order to win the 2004 general election when, in fact, they should not have been available for use. Additionally, in the twenty days before the 2004 general election, Martinez for Senate received, but failed to disclose, $140,514 in contributions.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today, “The violations committed by Martinez for Senate are unprecedented in both size and scope.” Sloan continued, “Basically, Mel Martinez broke the law in order to win an election. Now, years later, he is a sitting Senator and the chairman of the Republican National Committee. A failure by the FEC to severely sanction the Martinez for Senate campaign committee will demonstrate that violating the law pays.”

CREW hopes to see the FEC sanction the campaign committee for the amount of the violations, nearly $800,000.

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About BlogActive

Greetings.

I started this site in response to the use of marriage equality as a wedge issue during the 2004 elections. At the same time politicians and political operators were working against equality they were also living their lives in the closet.

People are entitled to privacy and the exposure of someone's sexual orientation without their permission is unacceptable to me. Reporting on the hypocrisy of those who represent us in government? That's an entirely different matter.